Town Manager says alleged 2013 shortfall linked to 2012 transfer, end of year reporting

Town Manager says alleged 2013 shortfall linked to 2012 transfer, end of year reporting

Katie Landeck
News Staff Writer

WINCHENDON — Through-out the School Committee’s and Town Manager Jim Kreidler’s battle over a reported net school spending deficit, Mr. Kreidler has maintained that despite the state’s insistence, the deficit does not exist and the schools were not underfunded.

However, after some additional review, Mr. Kreidler said the town may have accidentally shorted the schools by approximately $40,000 in fiscal year 2012.


“I’m not disputing the $40,000,” he said. “I netted the charter reimbursement out of what I thought was a settled account.”

The Department of Education said the town failed to meet their net school spending obligations by $186,068 in fiscal year 2012. The Department also alleges that the town underfunded the schools by $138,332 in fiscal year 2013 although the numbers have not yet been finalized.

Kreidler said the $186,068 figure is far too high.

He believes the school district misreported a $145,458 transfer in their end of year report.

“On the end of report it disappears,” he said.

The $145,458 transfer covered a deficit in school unemployment and school charter and tuition.

He said the report was not amended to show the increased cost of those two line items.

As for the alleged fiscal year 2013 deficit, he said it does not exist.

The figures the town spent on indirect costs have not been finalized yet due to the town not closing their books until Dec. 30.

The state has based their findings off of the preliminary numbers provided to them by the school’s in the district’s end of year report,  according to Mr. Kreidler.

“Those are imaginary numbers,” he said of the estimates.

The town accountant and an outside auditor spent Thursday reviewing the indirect costs for fiscal year 2013. They are expected to be finalized soon.